Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Manihot grahamii

Graham's manihot, Graham's manihot or cassava, hardy tapioca
Habit Shrubs or trees, 2–6[–7] m.
Roots

not thickened.
Stems

erect, angled when young;

nodes not swollen;

leaf and stipule scars not elevated.
Leaves

deciduous;

stipules linear, remotely serrate;

petiole 5–33 cm;

blade basally attached, 5–13-lobed, median and adjacent lobes with pair of weakly defined rounded secondary lobes distal to middle, lateral lobes without secondary lobes, median lobe 5–24 cm, margins neither thickened nor revolute, entire, apex acuminate, surface glabrous, abaxial smooth.
Inflorescences

axillary, panicles, to 30 cm.
Pedicels

staminate 4–10 mm; pistillate 10–40 mm in fruit, straight.
Staminate flowers

calyx campanulate, 10–15 mm, lobes erect or spreading;

stamens 10.
Capsules

1.8 cm, smooth, not winged.
Seeds

oblong, 10–12 mm.

Manihot grahamii
Phenology Flowering Apr–Aug; fruiting Jun–Sep.
Habitat Disturbed areas, spreading from cultivation.
Elevation 0–600 m. (0–2000 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MS; TX; South America [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Manihot grahamii is native to northern Argentina, southeastern Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and is sometimes cultivated for its distinctive, attractive foliage. The flowers are relatively inconspicuous, but are much-visited by bees. This is the most cold-tolerant Manihot species; above-ground stems survive light frosts and if severe cold kills the aerial shoot system outright, new stems can regenerate from underground parts. It survives well and self-sows in garden settings as far north as tidewater Virginia; northern limits for the persistence of plants escaping from cultivation have yet to be established. In addition to characteristics noted in the key, herbarium specimens frequently exhibit contracted petiole bases.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 195.
Parent taxa Euphorbiaceae > Manihot
Sibling taxa
M. angustiloba, M. davisiae, M. esculenta, M. subspicata, M. walkerae
Name authority Hooker: Icon. Pl. 6: plate 530. (1843) — (as grahami)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers